Hemingford Grey is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Hemingford Grey lies approximately east of Huntingdon. Hemingford Grey is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well as being a historic county of England.

History

In Anglo-Saxon times the neighbouring villages of Hemingford Grey and Hemingford Abbots were a single estate. In the ninth century they were split into two. In 1066 "Little Hemingford", as it was known, was acquired by nearby Ramsey Abbey.

Hemingford Grey was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 in the Hundred of Toseland in Huntingdonshire; the name of the settlement was written as alia Emingeforde and Emingeforde in the Domesday Book. In 1086 there were three manors at Hemingford Grey; the annual rent paid to the lords of the manors in 1066 had been £17 and the rent had fallen to £16 in 1086.

The Domesday Book does not explicitly detail the population of a place but it records that there were 29 households at Hemingford Grey. Using these figures then an estimate of the population of Hemingford Grey in 1086 is that it was within the range of 101 and 145 people.

The Domesday Book uses a number of units of measure for areas of land that are now unfamiliar terms, such as hides and ploughlands. In different parts of the country, these were terms for the area of land that a team of eight oxen could plough in a single season and are equivalent to ; this was the amount of land that was considered to be sufficient to support a single family. By 1086, the hide had become a unit of tax assessment rather than an actual land area; a hide was the amount of land that could be assessed as £1 for tax purposes. The survey records that there were 12.25 ploughlands at Hemingford Grey in 1086 and that there was the capacity for a further 2.75 ploughlands.

In 1276 the village was given its present name by the de Grey family. The manor remained in the possession of the Greys until seized by Henry VII in the fifteenth century after George Grey, 2nd Earl of Kent was unable to settle his debts. The manor was subsequently leased by the crown to a number of people, including Sir Richard Williams (the great-grandfather of Oliver Cromwell); Sir George Howard; Helena, Marchioness of Northampton; and John, Earl of Holderness. In 1721 the manor was sold by the crown, together with half the manor of Hemingford Abbots, to James Mitchell of Fowlmere.

Hemingford Grey was in the historic and administrative county of Huntingdonshire until 1965. From 1965, the village was part of the new administrative county of Huntingdon and Peterborough. Then in 1974, following the Local Government Act 1972, Hemingford Grey became a part of the county of Cambridgeshire.

The second tier of local government is Huntingdonshire District Council which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire and has its headquarters in Huntingdon. Huntingdonshire District Council has 52 councillors representing 29 district wards. Huntingdonshire District Council collects the council tax, and provides services such as building regulations, local planning, environmental health, leisure and tourism. Hemingford Grey is a part of the district ward of The Hemingfords and is represented on the district council by two councillors. Cambridgeshire County Council consists of 69 councillors representing 60 electoral divisions. Hemingford Grey is part of the electoral division of The Hemingfords and Fen Stanton

From 1901, a census was taken every ten years with the exception of 1941 (due to the Second World War).

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

|-

!width="150"|Parish<br>

!width="30"|1911<br>

!width="30"|1921<br>

!width="30"|1931<br>

!width="30"|1951<br>

!width="30"|1961<br>

!width="30"|1971<br>

!width="30"|1981<br>

!width="30"|1991<br>

!width="30"|2001<br>

!width="30"|2011 <br>

|-

|align=left|Hemingford Grey

|align="center"|800

|align="center"|749

|align="center"|688

|align="center"|939

|align="center"|1,435

|align="center"|2,309

|align="center"|2,314

|align="center"|2,354

|align="center"|2,524

|align="center"|2,532

|-

|}

All population census figures from report Historic Census figures Cambridgeshire to 2011 by Cambridgeshire Insight. the regatta is held annually with the adjoining village of Hemingford Abbots and is believed to be among the oldest village regattas in the country.

Religious sites

thumb|left|200px|St James' Church, alongside the Ouse

With no church listed in the Domesday Book,

  • the watercolour painter Robert Winchester Fraser (1848–1906), of the Fraser family of artists, several of whom painted the village.
  • Elisabeth Vellacott, painter
  • Walter Dendy Sadler, painter

References

  • Village website
  • Parish Council website
  • St. James' Church website
  • Hemingford Pavilion website